Is history coming to an end, or just getting more interesting?Have we a human right to vengeance, or to arrange our children’s marriages?What exactly is the freedom that we love so much?Should we only marry cousins?Is sectarianism inevitable?Have we got the right Ten Commandments?Was the real love triangle in Camelot between three knights?What do Helen of Troy and Grendel’s mother have in common?What do Seinfeld and Swinburne have in common?Why do we rhyme poetry?Was incest really the crime of Oedipus?Why do we want time to end?Can seafood sustain civilization?What can the descendants of Adam tell us about democracy in Iraq?Are cultural studies and fascism cousins under the skin?Can we write our own script for the future, or is the past still guiding the pen?Is the world flat, or is it full of tribal bumps?Is human nature itself fundamentally tribal?

Freud feared that “the burden of civilization” might be too great, that repression of our instincts was like a dam ready to burst, and we were always ready to slip into savagery. Lévi-Strauss reassured us that the savage mind was universal and basically rational; our civilized minds were the same as their savage counterparts, we just gave them more to do. They both were right. But behind them stands Darwin. The savage in us is the residue of millions of years of evolution, and it got us where we are. But the savage mind evolved to deal with a world totally different from the world transformed by the miracle of modern industrial society.

It remains an open question whether the mind geared to living in small tribes can sustain the hugely complex world it has itself created so incredibly recently in evolutionary time. For world-renowned anthropologist Robin Fox the role of evolutionary science is not so much to explain what we do but to explain what we do at our peril. We take the world we know too much for granted; we must shock ourselves into seeing how recent and fragile it is.

In a sweeping survey of highly varied case histories, laced with the wit and elegance for which he has been often praised, Robin Fox considers our chronomyopic perceptions of time; the human part of human rights; tribalism and democracy; taboo and morals in the Torah; animal dispersion and human sectarianism; incest in literature from Osiris to Nabokov; the male bond in the epics; poetry, memory, and the brain; the origins of civilization; social evolution and the meaning of the tribes; the vicissitudes of folk culture; and the mythic and rational elements in the evolution of thought. He considers the possibility of a true family of man with a scientific basis in human genetic unity. In trying to run our complex and expensive societies we are faced with the perennial appeal of tribalism – our continuing struggle with the maintenance of open societies in the face of our profoundly tribal human needs, and our need to draw on that very tribalism to survive. There is a balance if we can work it out. Time is short.

The Tribal Imagination: Civilization and the Savage Mind

CONTENTS

Prologue: The Miracle and the Drumbeats

Chapter 1: Time Out of Mind: Tribal Tempo and Civilized TemporalityChapter 2: The Human in Human Rights: Tribal Needs and Civilized IdealsChapter 3: The Kindness of Strangers: Tribalism and the Trials of DemocracyChapter 4: Sects and Evolution: Tribal Splits and Creedal SchismsChapter 5: Which Ten Commandments? Tribal Taboo and Priestly MoralityChapter 6: Incest and In-laws: Tribal Norms and Civilized NarrativesChapter 7: Forbidden Partners: Tribal Themes in Modern LiteratureChapter 8: In the Company of Men: Tribal Bonds in the Warrior EpicsChapter 9: Playing by the Rules: Savage Rhythms and Civilized RhymesChapter 10: Seafood and Civilization: From Tribal to Complex SocietyChapter 11: The Route to Civilization: From Tribal to Political SocietyChapter 12: Open Societies and Closed Minds: Tribalism versus CivilizationChapter 13: The Old Adam and The Last Man: Taming the Savage MindEpilogue: The Dream Man

Appendix: Transitional Time at the Edge of Chaos

Prepublication comments on: The Tribal Imagination

“Written with his usual flair and vigor, and with a poet’s feel for language, The Tribal Imagination represents the culminating achievement of anthropology’s most distinguished, erudite, and intellectually adventurous representative. It is a landmark in evolutionary social science, an original contribution to literary history and analysis, and also — last but not least — a handsome tribute to Charles Darwin at this commemorative time. Its appearance should be a significant publishing event.”Roger Sandall, School of Philosophical and Historical Enquiry, University of Sydney, author of The Culture Cult: Designer Tribalism and Other Essays.

“The Tribal Imagination manages to be erudite and logical yet engaging and entertaining at the same time. The intellectual pace of the book is the cognitive equivalent of being smacked by waves at the beach.”Steven Faraone, Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Physiology, and Director of Medical Genetics Research, SUNY Upstate Medical University. Author of: Straight Talk About Your Child’s Mental Health. Co-author of: The Genetics of Mood Disorders; The Genetics of Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia: The Facts.

“The Tribal Imagination addresses what is probably the most significant theoretical and epistemological problem confronting the social sciences: the integration of human nature within their conceptual frameworks. It seeks to establish human nature’s imprint in a wide variety of domains, many of which are considered immune to the evolutionary perspective, e.g. literature, poetry and history.

It is written by someone whose background and perspective are unique in the field. Only Robin Fox could have written such a book because only he occupies the corresponding niche. Indeed I do not know of anybody else who can make use of evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology to enlighten classical literature and poetry, who can carry out what one would a priori describe as reductionist analyses of some of the highest forms of human symbolic activity, and yet do so without in the slightest bit lessening the richness of these phenomena.

The book is an elegant demonstration that human nature is omnipresent in the symbolic realm and that knowing about this is the best way to make sense not only of humankind’s unity but of its diversity as well.”Bernard Chapais, Professor of Anthropology, Université de Montréal, author of Primeval Kinship: How Pair Bonding Gave Birth to Human Society.

“In The Tribal Imagination, Robin Fox brings to bear stunning insights from his wide knowledge of human societies and the philosophers, poets, and thinkers who have tried to understand them. He casts brilliant light not just on the human historical experience, but on contemporary issues from Iraq to human rights as well.”

Francis Fukuyama, Professor of Public Policy, Johns Hopkins University, author of The End of History and the Last Man, The Great Disruption, The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution

“One of our most prolific and brilliant anthropologists has done it again. Marriage rules of simple societies, the rise of civilization, modern international politics, and literary examples ranging from the Bible and Greek mythology to Shakespeare and children's rhymes are all grist for Robin Fox's mill, which grinds out a fine understanding of how human groups function, given the Darwinian imperatives operating in history, the dynamics of family relationships, and the possibilities and limitations of the human brain.”

Melvin Konner, Professor of Anthropology and Medicine, Emory University, author of The Evolution of Childhood, The Tangled Wing, Becoming a Doctor.

I wanted to use the following two pictuires on the front cover of the book, but the publisher thought that would be way too subtle and (quite rightly) used the wonderful picture of the boy with the gun (in what could be either Derry or Belfast NI.) Even so, I think the juxtaposition tells a wonderful tale and gets to the heart of the issue. RF

The Oath of the Horatii. Jacques-Louis David, (1784) (Paris – Louvre)

The Horatii, an aristocratic family at the height of Roman “civilization,” (669 BC) in their beautiful palace with their robes and armor take their blood oath on their swords to fight the Roman enemies from Alba Longa to the death. They will do this in a ritual duel with three brothers of the Curiatii family of Alba. Their women and children sit off to the side neglected and ignored. It is the epitome of male-bonding ritual, with the father, Horatius, and his three sons binding themselves to die if needed for the sake of their cause: the salvation of the city. The grandmother, in black, hugs the children.

One of the women, their sister Camilla (in white) is engaged to one of the Curiatii, and another, Sabina (in brown) is a sister of the Curiatii married to one of the sons. The Horatii brothers win their fight but two are killed. The remaining brother returns home and finds Camilla cursing Rome for the death of her fiancé. He instantly kills his sister for her impiety. For David this represented the triumph of selfless duty to the state over selfish loyalty to spouses, family and clan. Originally he was going to paint the killing of the Curiatii sister (the sketches exist) but changed his mind thinking it might just send the wrong message. For us it represents the ongoing battle of conflicting duties between kin and strangers, and kin and the state, that is one of our basic themes.

The story is in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita (From the Foundation of the City. Circa 25 AD)

Cocihiti Indian Ceremony circa 1883 photo Charles Loomis.

Compare the Horatii with the Cochiti Indians of New Mexico engaged in a peaceful “rain dance” ceremony in which all sexes and ages cooperate. It has beauty, order and grace, and is done for the benefit of all mankind. (“We all wear cotton,” the Cacique told me as an example, “we must make it rain wherever they grow cotton.”) Note that it has rained during the dance – a sign of blessing. There is however the cross of Christian “civilization” hovering over them on the mission gateway. The Cochiti dance before the church to honor its god while honoring their own.

Note the almost naked Koshare – the “sacred clown,” on the far right in front of the older men singing and drumming. The drum represents thunder. The women wear “tablitas” on their heads with the stylized cloud design. The gourd rattles and the men’s long hair (crowned with Mexican macaw feathers) symbolize rain. Children of both sexes as young as three take a full part in the daylong ceremony where the two “moieties” – Pumpkin and Turquoise, the two halves of the tribe, dance alternately. The meaning of the long pole with its feathers and fox skins waved over the heads of the dancers is a tribal secret. It’s handling, like the drumming of the hollow-log drums, is in the hands of a specialized cult. The so-called clowns – the other group is the Kwirena, organize and manage the dances in alternate years. They are the Rio Grande Pueblo version of the “mudheads” of Zuni. The dances I saw in the late 1950s differed in no detail from this picture in the 1880s. Some of the older people recognized themselves as children in Loomis’s photos.

Bradley A. ThayerDepartment of Political ScienceUtah State UniversityOld Main 320Logan, UT 84322Bradley.Thayer@usu.edu

Over 150 years after Darwin, books that explore theimpact of evolution on social topics remain relativelyrare. Yet, there are a few scholars upon whom we maydepend to demonstrate that what is considered ‘‘social’’is studied usefully through the perspective of humanevolution. In line with what readers of Politics and theLife Sciences have come to expect over the years,anthropologist Robin Fox, University Professor of SocialTheory at Rutgers University, has produced anotherexceptional contribution to consilient knowledge.In a sweeping work, part memoir and part scholarlystudy, Fox explains why human nature is tribal andhow the human tribal brain has produced a ‘‘tribalimagination’’ in humans. This tribal imaginationinfluences and governs human social behavior, includingour notion of time, religious belief, human rights,the logic of kin-based societies like Iraq—and whythese societies have difficulties building democracy—morality, warfare, the rise of civilization, and majorthemes in literature, drama, and poetry.For Fox, the tribal imagination, or the evolutionaryinheritance that is human nature, is the drumbeat thatallows us to understand human behavior over the agesand into the future. This imagination enables us tocomprehend our ancestors and heirs. This is a powerfulbook—reflectively and sharply written. Writing of theimportance of kin-based social structures in mostsocieties (e.g., Afghanistan), which are necessarilykin-based because you can only really trust immediateor extended family, Fox observes that: ‘‘We in the Westhad to turn ‘nepotism’ and ‘corruption’ from tribalvirtues into criminal offenses, and we struggle with it. Ilive in New Jersey, and I stare into the pit’’ (p. 70).Many of the problems and difficulties we encounterin modern life are defined by the tension between ourtribal imagination, the human evolutionary legacy, andthe demands of civilization. Of course, the impulse todo what has served humans well over evolutionarytime may offend the norms and dictates of civilizedsocieties. In essence, Fox’s work is a study of theorigins and consequences of this tension. For thisreview, I will focus on two of his major contributions:his critique of how social scientists consider time byoveremphasizing more recent, social and politicalevents; and, his consideration of warfare.Fox’s intellectual foundation is the Environment ofEvolutionary Adaptedness (EEA), which should befamiliar to readers of this journal. From this genesis, hefirst considers time. He writes: ‘‘Our chronomyopia—ourfixation on the present and familiar—leads us to overvaluethe period of time we label ‘history’ to the point ofrelegating more than 99 percent of human existence to‘prehistory’—a mere run-up to the real thing. It would bemore logical to label hominids up to, say, the invention oftools, as ‘past man,’ those from thence until the Neolithicrevolution as ‘present man,’’’ and contemporary humansas ‘‘late man’’ (p. 16). The human conception of timeoveremphasizes the immediate past and future.Recognizing Fox’s broader conception permits us tounderstand that humans have not had a linearconception of time until only recently. The naturalconception of time is cyclical. Weaving togetherinsights from anthropology and political theory, Foxargues that most social scientists are only able to seeevents that mattered, like the Industrial Revolution,within a relatively recent historical period (p. 31). Foxrecognizes that the Industrial Revolution has influencedhuman behavior. But to focus on it, or theInformation Revolution, or any of the major socialchanges in recent (i.e., recorded) history, is to forget therevolution of human evolution.In a passage that merits quoting at length, Foxartfully captures the importance of human evolutionand the perspective on time it provides. If we beginwith early hominids two and half million years ago atthe beginning of the Paleolithic and consider what hashappened since as an hour long film, considering onlythe film’s last minute, ‘‘roughly 40,000 years ago,when our few, fully modern human ancestors of thelast Pleistocene/Paleolithic were coping with a majorice age, the Wurrm Glaciation,’’ then only thirtyseconds ago ‘‘came the cognitive revolution of thecave-painting Cro-Magnons in southeastern Europe,’’fifteen seconds ago ‘‘at the beginning of our warminterglacial came the Neolithic revolutionary and thefirst domestication of animals and plants,’’ sevenseconds ago ‘‘came the first towns,’’ four secondsago, ‘‘the first states and writing,’’ one-and-a-halfseconds ago ‘‘the Roman Empire, the Han dynasty, andthe Kushan empire in India, were at their height,’’three-tenths of a second ago ‘‘the industrial revolutionnips by in a blink before the end’’ (pp. 33–34). ‘‘Therise in the world’s population from a hundred millionor so three seconds ago, to six and half billion at theend of the hour, would likewise only be visible only ifyou watched very diligently, because it happened in thelast two-tenths of a second’’ (p. 34).For social scientists to weight the last two-tenths of asecond as the defining force in social life is toexaggerate its importance past the point of distortionand to prevent a solid comprehension of humanbehavior. For Fox, humans are still thatpaleolithic hunter, stranded at the end of a particularlywarm interglacial that we are making evenwarmer. We are waiting for either another tropicalperiod that will send jungles to the poles, or morelogically another ice age that will send the polar ice(and it can return as easily as it goes) rapidly towardthe equator. Both could happen…They are part of thatgreat cycle of time on which we are not even a blip.And we think we are writing the script (p. 34).I fear that Fox’s appeal to social scientists torecognize how major social or political events fit intothe tribal imagination will fall on deaf ears, at least inthe near-term. I do not expect confessions of chronomyopiaamong the political scientists at the nextannual meeting of the American Political ScienceAssociation. But works like this are making inroadsinto social science due to the power of their ideas andthe value of the consilient approach.The second major contribution is Fox’s argument onthe importance of male bonding for warfare. Fox’sentitles his treatment ‘‘In the Company of Men,’’ andthis is precisely the point of how the tribal imaginationinfluences warfare. The heterosexual male-male bond isthe equal of the male-female bond in its evolutionarysignificance. It makes hunters, warriors, and fathers. It isubiquitous in literature and surfaces time and again inpopular culture ‘‘buddy’’ movies like Butch Cassidy andthe Sundance Kid or Saving Private Ryan ‘‘where mendie for each other as surely as Romeo did for Juliet in theworld’s most famous heterosexual tragedy’’ (p. 196).The EEA of the Upper Paleolithic explains it. ‘‘Maleshunting or fighting together had to develop a specialkind of trust that went beyond simple friendship asmight be expressed in grooming or proximity’’ (p. 197).This was not as straightforward as it may appear, butwas necessary for predation and protection.What was necessary for the male bond to evolve, Foxnotes, was the kind of dependence that involved, firstly,‘‘a selection among young males for those with the rightqualities (for males will differ in their bonding capacities),and…elaborate recruitment systems of trial andinitiation’’ (p. 197). The second element ‘‘was ‘femaleexclusion,’ in which the heterosexual bond was rituallydowngraded (as at ‘stag parties’ today) and exclusivemale groups were formed, with their secret ceremonies,oaths, and sanctions’’ (p. 197). The obvious tension withthe heterosexual bond necessary for reproduction yieldsendless fodder for literature, poetry, mythology, andphilosophy, as well as sit-coms, romantic comedies, andshows that highlight the ‘‘battle of the sexes.’’ Men canbe ‘‘ambivalent about the heterosexual bond insofar as itthreatened the male association,’’ whereas women ‘‘findthe demands of the male group equally threatening to theneeds of the family’’ (p. 197).The implications of the male bond for ancient andmodern warfare are profound. For ancient warfare, themale bond makes warfare possible and serves as thefoundation for military organization necessary, at first,for hunting and raiding. Later, it allows the organizedbattle defined in classical warfare by the Greek phalanxor the form of battle in premodern societies, such asNew Guinea, identified by anthropologists.The male bond remains central to modern warfare.Although in Western societies, its importance is oftennot understood by those outside of the military. Thebond must be created to generate trust in combat. Thattrust yields cohesiveness and fighting effectiveness. Itpermits men to make exceptional sacrifices in battleand sustain themselves in the most stressful of battles,as they have done throughout time. That was true atAdrianople, Waterloo, the Somme, Stalingrad, orFallujah. ‘‘Males who bond will have allies they cantrust; it is that simple’’ (p. 221). That is also true ofmen in other less stressful competitive environments,for example, in business, government, or sports.Once the bond is created, its potency cannot bedenied. Fox writes: ‘‘The depth of emotional attachmentbetween men of the same platoon or companywho have shared terrifying experiences and risked theirlives for each other is real and always moving….[N]oone who has witnessed the reunion of those baptizedtogether in fierce battle, or seen the tears shed overfallen comrades, can doubt that this is one of the mostpowerful emotional bonds known to us’’ (pp. 222–223). Some men may fight for their country, ideology,or religion, but all men fight for their band of brothers.Much of the thrust of Fox’s book is at odds with themove toward a unisex military in the last 15 years. Theconsequences of diluting the male bond (directly andindirectly) by allowing women a greater role in theUnited States military is not part of the public or policydebate. It should be. Decision makers need tounderstand and take Fox’s arguments seriously. Thetribal imagination cannot be wished away. It may taketime, but science will trump ideology.Upon reflection, this is a powerful and provocativework. Each of the thirteen chapters contains insightfulconsiderations and evaluations. To take one example,Fox’s treatment of human rights is golden. Humanrights have been too narrowly focused for too long.The tribal imagination gives us insight into what istruly human in human rights—there is no human rightfor polygamy or for revenge, but the tribal imaginationsays there should be.The limitations of the work are few. As this work is partmemoir, Fox offers reflections and observations from hiscareer in discrete sections in the text. Accordingly, readersshould not expect the flow of a purely academic work. Forsome readers, this might be a flaw, but I found it refreshingas Fox offers his insights on numerous topics, or takes amoment to provide a judicious comment or, perhaps, abiting one. Many of his considerations or examples aredrawn from literature. This is perfectly appropriate sincegreat authors capture well the drumbeats of human nature.I was greatly impressed with Fox’s depth of understandingof literature and wonder if he does not moonlight as aprofessor of literature.Perhaps the greatest value of the book is what Foxshares with us concerning his career. Implicitly, hedemonstrates to young anthropologists that a careerspent illuminating the drumbeats of human nature,discovering how the tribal imagination continues toaffect human lives and the human condition, in essence,putting the human in anthropology, is one well spent.Though too seldom taught, that lesson is important, andis one that should be reinforced and broadened toinclude all social sciences. Those who want to knowhumans need to understand Fox’s drumbeats of humannature. At the end of the day, whether social scientistsaccept Fox’s argument is immaterial at the mostprofound level. The tribal imagination exists, and it willremain analytically insightful, vexing, and humbling forall who truly want to comprehend human behaviors.

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